U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday afternoon announced a ceasefire agreement with Turkey for northern Syria, just over a week after President Donald Trump opened the door to Turkish forces invading the area and slaughtering the Kurdish population there.

“One thing we can count on is that the Kurds won’t trust the U.S. going forward and why should they?”
—Rukmini Callimachi, The New York Times

The deal hinges on Kurds with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leaving a 20-mile buffer zone between Turkey and Syria within five days, a prerequisite that Jewish Community Action Minnesota communications director Isaiah Breen condemned as “ethnic cleansing.”

The president, in comments to reporters on Turkey Thursday, used similar language, saying of the border that Turkey “had to have it cleaned out.”

The president also said that the ceasefire was helpful because Turkey was now “not going to have to kill millions of people.”

The agreement, according to The New York Times, puts the Kurds in a tough spot: